Too Much but the Same
In a time of crisis, some of the problems of mainstream media coverage are:
- The lack of details
- The slow pace at which the information is updated
- The clutter of ads that break up the information
Over the past month, I’ve found myself doom scrolling on major news outlets, desparately seeking answers only to find very little news or only skin deep coverage leaving many questions unanswered. As well, it seemed like updates came at a snails pace. When they did, they were interrupted with overlayed ads, 30 second ads, and ads disguised as news articles spread amongst the headlines.
It’s no wonder that people flock to Telegram, Twitter, Facebook, and WhatsApp to get their news. Of course, this makes people prone to being duped and a huge torrent of stories can overwhelm. Bad actors abuse this to seed disinformation.
What we are needing more than ever is a news aggragation and verification tool around specific topics. Read all the articles, check who wrote them, who posted them, when and how they were spread, and then summarized the ones that are relevant. Maybe, remove the bias from the original articles and give me the facts.
We have grown used to “free” news not realizing we were the product being sold. Instead, it might be the time for us to own our information diet and ensure it’s wholesome again.
